The Pilot News - Hard times hitting home

Monaco’s announcement hit many hard, including the town of Wakarusa, where it was their biggest manufacturer.
“There were, we think, 1,000 employees that worked in Wakarusa that will no longer be coming into our community,” Wakarusa town manager Tom Roeder said. “We think as many as 100 to 150 lived within a 5-mile radius of Wakarusa.”
The implications for the small town reach beyond Monaco into a large portion of its other businesses.
“It certainly affects many of our local businesses,” Roeder said. “We have a number of businesses that are direct suppliers to Monaco. We have restaurants and gas stations and hardware stores and other things that will be affected by not only Monaco but the employees of Monaco not purchasing from them. So it’s pretty dramatic.”
Wakarusa Chamber Executive Secretary Doris Biller expressed the same concerns.
“It’s really a sad thing that has happened,” she said. “It’s going to affect every business because those people would always shop after work and do business with them.”
Phil Penn, president of the Elkhart Chamber of Commerce, gave his thoughts on the widespread effects of Monaco’s closing.
“I ran into a friend of mine, a businessman in Elkhart,” he said, “He happens to own a small business and Monaco was one of his clients, and he said ‘this is going to affect my business too.’ So yes, we’re concerned very much for the immediate workers, that have lost their jobs here, but being a core industry there are a lot of places that supply the parts for these vehicles, so its going to be a domino effect, and much more serious.”
Congressman Mark Souder (R-Macy) and state representative Jackie Walorski (R-Lakeville) called a press conference Friday, July 18 to discuss what they feel state and federal government can do to prevent further shutdowns.
“It’s really tenuous right now because of the fact that we’ve been enduring a consistent stream of layoffs,” Walorski said during the conference.
Walorski and Souder blame high fuel prices for the large number of layoffs among manufacturers and for the Monaco shutdowns.
“I think right now the general mood of Hoosiers is a little tenuous. They’re just not sure what’s going to happen with this industry,” Walorski said. “But I think the important thing today is we can tell Hoosiers that the federal, state and local governments are working as hard as they can to take care of Hoosier families.”
The one question on many minds now is, what will those workers do?
“Our most important concern is for the employees and their families and to find other jobs, and their welfare,” Roeder said.
Walorski composed a letter to Indiana governor Mitch Daniels Thursday following Monaco’s announcement. She asked the state government to deploy a rapid response team from Ivy Tech to offer accelerated retraining programs for those who will be in need of jobs.
By Thursday afternoon, Workforce Development had set up temporary office at the Nappanee Public Library to work with individuals on applications for unemployment. Monaco has also offered the use of their facilities for Workforce Development training.
Another request Walorski made was that the state government consider legislation calling for the removal of sales tax from RVs sold in Indiana.
Prior to closing down their plants, Monaco tried other measures like layoffs, shortened work weeks and reduced hours.
“We have implemented several successful initiatives over the past 18 months in an effort to size our business to match declining market demand,” Monaco chairman and CEO Kay Toolson said in a press release. “However, market conditions have continued to deteriorate and we do not see significant improvements occurring in the near future.”
Newmar, others, face layoffs
Other RV manufacturers are experiencing similar difficulties. Earlier this month Nappanee-based manufacturer Newmar Corp. laid off 163 workers following its annual shutdown. This was after a 118-person layoff in January.
“The whole industry has been affected,” personnel director Keith Weirich said. “We hope it will get better, but we don’t have any idea at this point in time when things will turn around.”
Newmar manufactures Class A motorhomes and fifth-wheel travel trailers and has been in Nappanee since 1968. Weirich said this is the worst the company has experienced.
“There have been different cycles that the RV companies have gone through,” he said, “but I’ve been here 11 years and I’ve never seen anything like this that has affected so many companies.”
According to Weirich, Newmar has taken measures to try to preserve its existence.
“We’ve changed some things and we’re hoping we can recall our employees,” he said.